When I listen to audiobooks, I never review them here – instead, it’s become a bit of a New Year tradition to produce an annual round-up of everything I’ve listened to over the previous year. If you’ve read my previous audiobook posts (two for 2022 – here and here – then one for 2023 and one for 2024), you’ll already know that I almost never sit in a chair and simply listen – if I do try, my attention wanders, and I often find myself dropping off (however gripping the story…!). Almost all my listening is done when walking on my own – the books sometimes take me rather a long time to get through, half an hour at a time, and there are often long gaps in my listening if the weather’s bad and I can’t get out and about. And I do walk with friends more regularly than walking alone these days – it’d be very rude to do that with my earbuds in! – so there are rather fewer audiobooks to tell you about this year.
You will find that the books I listen to are different from my usual kindle reading – almost all thrillers (I know I’ve mentioned before that they make me walk faster, sometimes further, and the pacing works much better for me!), other than the occasional book group read. And I never tag the authors – mainly because I don’t always enjoy every book quite as much as I hope to. My post is only about my personal listening experience – and maybe drawing attention to some audiobooks that you might have missed and would like to try too.
Looking back at last year’s post, I see I’d planned to start the year listening to Jennie Godfrey’s The List of Suspicious Things – but I didn’t! Although the wonderful Joanne Froggatt was one of several narrators, it just didn’t hook me in – although I did finish it (and rather enjoyed it) by reading it on my kindle in time for the discussion at my book club. Instead, my first audiobook of the year was another book club choice – Horse by Geraldine Brooks…
Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamour of any racetrack.
Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse – one studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.
Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred, Lexington, who became America’s greatest stud sire, Horse is an original, gripping, multi-layered reckoning with the legacy of enslavement and racism in America.
I do remember enjoying Year of Wonders by this author – a story set around the plague in Eyam in Derbyshire – and enjoying March rather less. But I must say I loved this one – the threads around enslavement, art, race and racism beautifully managed, a collection of personal and emotionally affecting stories, with the story of the horse Lexington driving the narrative. It was informative too, and ultimately very uplifting – history brought to life against a sweeping canvas. And the narration through the different characters’ voices meant it really kept my interest throughout – if this is one you missed (published in 2023) I’d very much recommend trying the audiobook.
My next read? Back to the thrillers, and I’d so enjoyed my first two encounters with the world of Tilly and Poe that I thought I’d try the third book in this wonderful series – The Curator by MW Craven…
Nothing says Christmas like severed fingers…
It’s December and a serial killer is leaving body parts all over Cumbria.
Called in to investigate, the National Crime Agency’s Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw are faced with a case that makes no sense. Why were the victims killed in such different ways? Why is their only suspect denying what they can irrefutably prove but admitting to things they weren’t even aware of? And what could the cryptic message left at each scene – #BSC6 – possibly mean?
When a disgraced FBI agent gets in touch things take an even darker turn. Because she doesn’t think Poe is dealing with a serial killer at all; she thinks he’s dealing with someone far, far worse – a man who calls himself the Curator.
And if you think you know what’s happening, you’re exactly where he wants you to be…
Not at all my usual kind of read – severed fingers, body parts – and you might already know I struggle to review thrillers, but as soon as I discovered Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw, Mike’s writing and John Banks’ narration, I knew I’d found a series I’d love. The characters and their relationships are just wonderful, the stories with their unexpected twists and turns quite ingenious, and the pacing with its moments of particular drama entirely addictive. I’m guessing most thriller aficionados will have found and completed this series long before me – but if you’ve missed it, I couldn’t recommend it more highly.
I then decided to try book 3.5 in the series – the short story collection, Cut Short…
In The Killing Field, Poe and Tilly are having breakfast, wondering how to spend the rest of their holiday, when their presence is requested at a Cumbrian airfield. An airfield that, during the 2001 foot-and-mouth crisis, was known as the killing field…
In Why Don’t Sheep Shrink?, a global pandemic forces Poe and Tilly to self-isolate together. Things don’t go well. They’re bickering and on the verge of falling out until Poe finds an old case file: a locked-room mystery he’s been mulling over for years. Step forward, Tilly Bradshaw.
Dead Man’s Fingers sees Poe, Tilly and Edgar, Poe’s English springer spaniel, enjoying a picnic at a nature reserve…
Ok, I’ll cut it off there – seven stories in total. And I’ll be honest, the collection didn’t entirely work for me – although the characters were as fantastic as ever, I didn’t think the stories were long enough or sufficiently developed to grab me in the way I’d hoped. And I think I’ve learned something – the short story format doesn’t really work as well for me as an audiobook.
So my next audiobook was by a new-to-me author and a bit more hot off the press (although I’m not sure audiobooks have hot presses… actually I don’t think any books do!). I’d been seeing Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister all over my social media feeds, and the story looked like something I’d really enjoy…
It’s Camilla’s first day back at work, her daughter’s first day at nursery.
But husband Luke is nowhere to be seen. The only trace of him is an unfinished note. Camilla tries to put it out of her mind; there must be a rational explanation.
At work, there are welcomes back, and too many distractions.
Then it starts.
Breaking news: there’s a hostage situation developing in London.
The police arrive: Luke is caught up in it.
But he isn’t a hostage. Luke – doting father, successful writer, enthusiastic runner and eternal optimist – is the gunman.
What Camilla does next is crucial. Because only she knows what the note he left behind says, and the clues it might hold…
A nicely breathless blurb, eh? And this was a book that certainly didn’t disappoint… such an original premise, really well developed, and I had no idea where the story was going. It was a bit of a book of parts for me though – I loved the opening, and the way the pace steadily increased towards the climax, but I did think it meandered a bit and lost a little focus in the middle (or maybe that was just me…). Really different though, and with a particularly ingenious and unexpected ending – I rather enjoyed it, and will be trying more of the author’s books…
My next read? Human Remains by Jo Callaghan – it’s not often that I preorder an audiobook, but I so loved the first two books in the series that this one was waiting for me on its publication day.
THE TRUTH WILL ALWAYS COME OUT – BUT AT WHAT COST?
Fresh from successfully closing their first live case, the Future Policing Unit are called in to investigate when a headless, handless body is found on a Warwickshire farm. But as they work to identify the victim and their killer, the discovery of a second body begins to spark fears that The Aston Strangler is back.
When DCS Kat Frank is accused of putting the wrong man behind bars all those years ago, AIDE Lock – the world’s first AI detective – pursues the truth with relentless logic. But Kat is determined to keep the past buried, and when she becomes the target of a shadowy figure looking for revenge, Lock is torn between his evidence-based algorithms and the judgement of his partner, with explosive results.
When everything hangs in the balance, it will all come down to just how much an AI can learn, and what happens when they do…
This series has been everything I most enjoy in audiobook format – tautly written crime fiction, with that fascinating extra dimension with the AI elements and the ongoing debate about what it means to be human. The relationship between Kat and Locke continues to fascinate, the emotional elements, the scientific content, the well drawn characters, and the absolute originality of the storylines. A superb narrator in Rose Akroyd – and a compelling story, filled with drama and humour, but with such a sad and chilling ending. I raced through this book, while not wanting it to end – I’ve already preordered the next book in the series, Body of Lies (out on 21st May) because I really have to know what happens next…
And my next read was another preorder – I’d seen so many enticing pre-release reviews of Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney. And it was narrated by Richard Armitage and Tuppence Middleton, and promised “a gripping soundscape and sound effects, providing a totally immersive audio experience” – so it was one I was rather looking forward to.
Wives think their husbands will change, but they don’t.
Husbands think their wives won’t change, but they do.
Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.
Grady calls his wife as she’s driving home to share some exciting news. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by a cliff edge, the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there . . . but his wife has disappeared.
A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible: a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.
Dark and atmospheric, a wonderfully drawn isolated setting, full of unexpected twists, perfectly paced, really disturbing, and I absolutely loved it. The listening experience was quite superb – and I’m definitely planning to try more from the author…
I then moved on to Other People’s Houses by Clare Mackintosh – the third in her DC Morgan series…
Even on the most desirable street, there’s a dark side . . .
The Hill is the kind of place everyone wants to live: luxurious, exclusive and safe. But now someone is breaking and entering these Cheshire homes one by one, and DS Leo Brady suspects the burglar is looking for something, or someone, in particular.
Over the border in Wales, DC Ffion Morgan recovers the body of an estate agent from the lake. There’s no love lost between Ffion and estate agents, but who hated this one enough to want her dead – and why?
As their cases collide, Ffion and Leo discover people will pay a high price to keep their secrets behind closed doors…
This series just gets better and better – such well drawn characters, intriguing relationships between them, a particularly authentic and well described setting, and this time two linked mysteries that made it such a compelling story to listen to. The multi-character narration is something I always enjoy, and this was 0ne of those “perfect for audio” reads – very much enjoyed.
My thoughts must have been turning towards my forthcoming cruise when I decided next to listen to The Last Passenger by Will Dean – but, having read so much praise for his writing from blogger friends, I thought it was about time I gave one of his books a try…
My phone has no reception, something we’ve been told to expect from time to time out here, and my stomach feels uneasy. Maybe it’s the motion of the waves or maybe it’s the fact that Pete didn’t leave a note or a text. He usually leaves a note with a heart.
I pull on jeans and a jumper and scrunch my hair on top of my head and take my key card and step out into the corridor.
Thirty seconds later it hits me.
All the other cabin doors are wedged open.
Every single one is unoccupied and unlocked.
My heart starts beating harder. I break out into a run. At the end of the long corridor I take a lift down to the Ocean Lobby.
There’s nobody here.
My mouth is dry.
It’s like I’m trapped on a runaway train.
No, this is worse.
The RMS Atlantica is steaming out into the ocean and I am the only person on board.
This was supposed to be the holiday of a lifetime for Cas. Now she just needs to survive.
The Amazon page says this book has “the drama of The Woman in Cabin 10 and the tension of And Then There Were None” – well, I’ve read both, and I’d say it was far, far better. It’s premise is totally off the wall, and gets increasingly bizarre as the story unfolds – and I must admit there were a few times I thought the dramatic moments were getting a bit repetitive, and the shocks weren’t perhaps still having quite the same impact. But I’ve since recommended this book to so many people, just for the thrill of the experience – and as for that amazing and unexpected ending! Perhaps not one to read on your next cruise, but I really loved it…
And I remember exactly where I was when I started to listen to Dead Ground, the fourth in MW Craven’s Tilly and Poe series – about to do my first four circuits of Balmoral’s deck (a mile… to make sure I got my daily steps in on the first sea day)…
Detective Sergeant Washington Poe is in court, fighting eviction from his beloved and isolated croft, when he is summoned to a backstreet brothel in Carlisle where a man has been beaten to death with a baseball bat. Poe is confused – he hunts serial killers and this appears to be a straightforward murder-by-pimp – but his attendance was requested personally, by the kind of people who prefer to remain in the shadows.
As Poe and the socially awkward programmer Tilly Bradshaw delve deeper into the case, they are faced with seemingly unanswerable questions: despite being heavily vetted for a high-profile job, why does nothing in the victim’s background check out? Why was a small ornament left at the murder scene – and why did someone on the investigation team steal it? And what is the connection to a flawlessly executed bank heist three years earlier, a heist where nothing was taken…
Very dark, the content sometimes shocking, the story twisting and turning, the drama mounting – all offset by that wonderful relationship between Poe and Tilly, so endlessly entertaining too, and full of the most perfect emotional touches. I think this might have been my favourite in the series so far…
Until I moved on to the next in the series, The Botanist… that was better still…!
I had to resist immediately moving on to the next book in the series – we all need a little variety in our lives and reading! – and instead decided to listen to Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell…
He’s the perfect man.
He says he loves you.
You think he might even be made for you.
Before long he’s moved into your house – and into your heart.
And then he leaves for days at a time. You don’t know where he’s gone or who he’s with.
And you realise – if you looked back – you’d say to yourself:
DON’T LET HIM IN.
I always love listening to the author’s books, because they tend to be full cast productions, and that’s something I invariably prefer – and quite a cast for this one, including Richard Armitage (you’ll have noticed he’s a particular personal favourite!), Joanne Froggatt and Louise Brealey. And I so love her writing – her stories always involving and cleverly crafted, perfectly paced, filled with the unexpected. I must admit though – and it might have been more to do with the fact that I listened to it in very short bursts while on holiday, but I did find this one a touch less compelling than I’ve found her others. I actually think it might have worked better on my kindle – I found myself confused about the characters, the voices sometimes a little too similar to distinguish between them, although the many unexpected twists were brilliantly handled. I enjoyed it – but, if I’m honest, perhaps not quite as much as I wanted to.
For my next read, I decided to try another book from Alice Feeney – this time it was Daisy Darker…
Isolated on their private island in Cornwall, the Darker family have come together for the first time in over a decade. When the tide comes in, they’ll be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours. When the tide goes back out, nothing will ever be the same again. Nothing – because one of the family is a killer…
As the leaves of autumn fall, Daisy Darker arrives at her grandmother’s house for eightieth birthday celebrations. Seaglass, the Darker’s ancestral home, is a crumbling Cornish house perched upon its own tiny private island.
Every member of the family has their secrets. Nana, alone for so long. Daisy’s absent father, Frank. Her cold-hearted mother, Nancy. Her siblings, Rose and Lily, and her niece, Trixie, full of questions and without a father of her own. Daisy has never had an easy relationship with her family, but some secrets are much darker than others. This will be a gathering that some of them won’t remember.
A perfect setting for a closed door mystery, as the distinctly unpleasant family – who we get to know better through the account by Daisy – are slowly picked off one by one. The tension is palpable, the whole story steadily paced with regular shocks and small twists along the way – and I really enjoyed Daisy’s narrative voice, always with the uncomfortable feeling that she might not be quite the reliable narrator she at first appears to be. The family’s dynamics, past and present, are so fascinating – and while I’m not often a fan of the jaw-dropping twist, this book has one that turns the whole story upside down and inside out, and I absolutely loved it. Several more audiobooks of the author’s books might just have found their way into my library…
And just one more – and I could resist no longer, it was the The Mercy Chair by MW Craven…
Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin . . .
Washington Poe has a story to tell.
And he needs you to listen.
You’ll hear how it started with the robber birds. Crows. Dozens of them. Enough for a murder…
He’ll tell you about a man who was tied to a tree and stoned to death, a man who had tattooed himself with a code so obscure, even the gifted analyst Tilly Bradshaw struggled to break it. He’ll tell you how the man’s murder was connected to a tragedy that happened fifteen years earlier when a young girl massacred her entire family.
And finally, he’ll tell you about the mercy chair. And why people would rather kill themselves than talk about it…
Poe hopes you’ve been paying attention. Because in this story, nothing is as it seems…
The latest book in the series, The Final Vow, came out in August 2025 – after reading about the story’s premise and storyline, I’m desperate to read it, but really didn’t want to read the series out of order. So now I’ve caught up – and that’s why my post this year is a bit of a Craven-fest – and I can make it my first read of the new year. And this book? I loved the story itself, but also the very different way it was told – and if we’re talking about jaw dropping twists, this book has a particular humdinger. As stunning as always…
And that concludes my listening year – a slightly disappointing tally this time, but a great selection of audiobooks. I’m moving into the new year with The Impossible Fortune, book 5 of Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club: I really didn’t like this series at first, but I grew to enjoy it more and more. This one already has me eager to go out for my next walk, chuckling to myself as I do and finding people looking at me a little oddly… now where are my boots?
A great selection Anne. I read Don’t Let Him in and thought it was brilliant! If you can get it on audiobook, Gillian McAllister’s Wrong Place, Wrong Time is excellent. So clever!
And narrated by Lesley Sharp! Thanks for the recommendation – now in my library…